I think that both of these images are effective because when people see them, they want to find out more, and read the story. The picture of Osama Bin Laden, I think, is especially effective. I think this is because everyone wants him to be caught, and when they see a picture of him, they read the story to see what has happened.
The caption on the picture of Osama Bin Laden really sums up the image. Without the caption, the image doesn’t tell you very much, it just shows him in some unknown place, and you can’t really tell what he is doing. Although the caption doesn’t tell you where he is, it tells you what he was doing at that point in the video footage. There is no caption on the J-Lo and Ben Affleck image.
The Osama Bin Laden story is effective because it shows that Osama does not care about the rest of the world, and that he does not care about what he has done to America.
The Sun is a tabloid, in which, you usually find more informal, and gossip type news. People who want a light read, or want to find out some celebrity gossip will read this kind of newspaper. The advantages of this kind of newspaper are, it is smaller than a broadsheet so it is easy to carry about, its a lot cheaper and people who don’t like to read a lot find its shorter articles easier to read. The disadvantages of this kind of newspaper are, a lot of the articles aren’t true and the articles are just gossip and people don’t need to know about them.
Secondly, I am going to write about The Guardian. It was also published on Thursday, 11th September 2003. There is no splash headline in The Guardian, which makes room for more text or images.
The main story is about claims against the Minister who misled the parliamentary committee who were investigating the Iraq record. There are two other stories on this page, the first is about a possible major fraud operation, and the second is about an Israeli jet that targets the Hamas leader.
There are cross-references for all three articles, telling them the exact page where the article is carried on, there is also a little section in the bottom right corner of the paper called a Quick Index. This has a few cross-references to different sections of the paper, they are: Letters on page 27, Weather on page 30, Cryptic Crosswords on page 36, Quick Crosswords on page G2, 23 and Today’s TV on page G2 back page.
There is only one picture on the front page, this is of Geoff Hoon. I think they chose this picture because when people see it, they immediately know whom the article is about, and when they see it, they will read the story to find out more about him. I think it is effective because of this reason. The caption below, says: “Geoff Hoon, at risk of loosing his job, at the Ministry of Defence yesterday”. This tells people who the picture is of, and the reason for the story being written (Geoff Hoon is in risk of loosing his job at the Ministry of Defence)
I have read the article about the Israeli Jet targeting the Hamas Leader, the headline that the newspaper chose was: Israeli jet targets Hamas Leader as Sharon flies home. I find this article effective because it reminds people that things like this are still happening in the world, and it shows how far people will go to get what they want.
The Guardian is a broadsheet newspaper; broadsheets tend to print more political stories than tabloids. People who have more time to read the news and more educated readers are more likely to buy The Guardian. The advantages of this kind of newspaper are the articles are more about current affairs and things that people are more interested in. The disadvantages are it is more expensive than a tabloid and it is a lot bigger and more awkward to carry around.
In comparison, although these newspapers were printed on the same day, they both chose completely different stories. The Guardian, as I have said before, has chosen a lot more political stories, and The Sun has chosen the more gossipy kind of story. The Sun has hardly any writing compared to the amount of picture, which covers a large majority of the front page, but on the other hand, The Guardian has chosen only one or two small pictures, and has a lot more text.
The Sun chose to put a massive splash headline on their first page which greatly decreased the amount of text that could be fitted on the page, also, this headline is short, and does not give you a great amount of detail. The Guardian however has chosen to put smaller headlines, which allows space for a greater amount of text. Although these headlines are smaller, they are longer, and provide much more detail.
In The Sun, the pictures are big, bold and ‘in your face’, whereas in The Guardian, the pictures are more subtle. Apart from the two stories, not much else appears on the front page of The Sun, but on The Guardian, they have a banner like contents along the top of the page, which features interesting articles, and where to find them. It also has a big advertisement for AOL Broadband along the bottom of the page.
I prefer tabloid newspapers. I find them easier to read, and have more interesting news in them than the broadsheets. They are also smaller, which make them easier to carry them around with you, and they are cheaper.